Saturday morning marked the end of the 2019 general assembly as Sixth District Senator, Mark Segebart, and House Representative, Brian Best, of the 12th District held their final Carroll Chamber of Commerce Legislative Forum of the year. During the question and answer segment of the event, many people asked about bills that did and did not make it through the session. Ron Juergens wanted to know if the solar bill had made the cut. Best summarized the legislation for those who may not have known the content.
Although the bill failed to get approval, Best said he did vote for it. However, he had some questions and concerns.
But those rebates made everyone’s bills higher. This year, Alliant Energy went to the Iowa Utilities Board and asked to make a 15 percent increase to fees. Best said that made a lot of legislators nervous. The bill did pass in the Senate, but Segebart said he and his counterparts were receiving hundreds of emails per day. There was a lot of misinformation about this particular piece of legislation, according to him.
The reason he believes it moved through the senate is because they thought it only fair that everyone who is using the lines and other pieces of infrastructure pay their share of the associated expenses. Juergens followed-up, noting that just as individuals are starting to install and use solar, electric companies are starting to put in solar pods. He said they don’t want the little guys to produce their own energy, they want to control the market. We will bring you more from the forum in upcoming broadcasts.
